Causes and Effects of Extinction & Animals' Ability to Survive
The ability of plants and animals to survive is affected by their structure, function, and behavior. Both human and natural elements my cause a species to become extinct.
Adaptations for Survival in a Habitat
In an enviroment, an organism can survive in thier habitat due to special traits called adaptations. An adaptation is a trait of an organism that is specialized for survival purposes. One example would be the coat of the white-tailed deer. They are born with a natural coat of light brown with white spots to camofauge themselves into the dirt and sun spots on the ground. This coloring lasts for the first several months of the fawn's life. Once older, the deer are an allover brown with some white remaining in the tail. The males will grow a set of antlers to serve as protection, but also as a mating strategy. These antlers can be used to threaten intruders on thier territory, or to impress members of the opposite gender. Below, there is a link to experiment with different adaptations in different habitats of fish. build a fish (MARE)
"White tailed deer"
Adaptations among Species
Two animals that are closely realted, yet very different are the porpoises and dolphins. At first glance, the two may seem to be one in the same species. But once analyzed, they are very different. For example, porpoises are much smaller than dolphins. Porpoises usually stop growing around a length of 7 feet, while dolphins can easily grow to over 10. Dolphins usually have a lean, streamlined body, while porpoises on the other hand, generally have a chubbier body type. When reproducing, the porpoise can be nursing while pregnant; this ability may have evolved this way considering most porpoises don't live much longer than twenty years. A dolphin can live to around 50, but can only reproduce once a year. (eSSORTMENT)
dolphins and porpoises
dolphin and porpoise
Human/Natural Action Produces Change Organisms cannot Adapt to
Change that an organism cannot adapt to can be natural. These factors can be a gradual change in climate or habitat, change or destruction in a food source, natural disasters or competition from other species. However, a change can also be due to human caused issues. The destruction of habitat, over hunting, and environmental factors such as pollution can all lead to a change that a species cannot adapt to because of the rapid nature of the change. Organisms adapt slowly and gradually to change, when given rapid changes in any of the areas required for the organsim to prosper organisms cannot adapt. For instance species that went extinct as a result of a rapid natural change via a natural disaster is the dinosaurs and nearly 75% of all life after the KT impact. The impact caused a global climate change quick enough that organisms could not adapt to the cooling trend produced by blockage of the suns rays by dust from the impact.One of the more know examples of the many species is the Dodo. Shortly after the birds discovery around the 1600's the species was extinct. This was a result of descruction of food sources from the destruction of the forest that yielded then. It was also due to the predation from animals brought by the sailors ("Dodo").
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Causes and Effects of Extinction & Animals' Ability to Survive
The ability of plants and animals to survive is affected by their structure, function, and behavior. Both human and natural elements my cause a species to become extinct.
Adaptations for Survival in a Habitat
In an enviroment, an organism can survive in thier habitat due to special traits called adaptations. An adaptation is a trait of an organism that is specialized for survival purposes. One example would be the coat of the white-tailed deer. They are born with a natural coat of light brown with white spots to camofauge themselves into the dirt and sun spots on the ground. This coloring lasts for the first several months of the fawn's life. Once older, the deer are an allover brown with some white remaining in the tail. The males will grow a set of antlers to serve as protection, but also as a mating strategy. These antlers can be used to threaten intruders on thier territory, or to impress members of the opposite gender. Below, there is a link to experiment with different adaptations in different habitats of fish.
build a fish (MARE)
Adaptations among Species
Two animals that are closely realted, yet very different are the porpoises and dolphins. At first glance, the two may seem to be one in the same species. But once analyzed, they are very different. For example, porpoises are much smaller than dolphins. Porpoises usually stop growing around a length of 7 feet, while dolphins can easily grow to over 10. Dolphins usually have a lean, streamlined body, while porpoises on the other hand, generally have a chubbier body type. When reproducing, the porpoise can be nursing while pregnant; this ability may have evolved this way considering most porpoises don't live much longer than twenty years. A dolphin can live to around 50, but can only reproduce once a year. (eSSORTMENT)
Human/Natural Action Produces Change Organisms cannot Adapt to
Change that an organism cannot adapt to can be natural. These factors can be a gradual change in climate or habitat, change or destruction in a food source, natural disasters or competition from other species. However, a change can also be due to human caused issues. The destruction of habitat, over hunting, and environmental factors such as pollution can all lead to a change that a species cannot adapt to because of the rapid nature of the change. Organisms adapt slowly and gradually to change, when given rapid changes in any of the areas required for the organsim to prosper organisms cannot adapt. For instance species that went extinct as a result of a rapid natural change via a natural disaster is the dinosaurs and nearly 75% of all life after the KT impact. The impact caused a global climate change quick enough that organisms could not adapt to the cooling trend produced by blockage of the suns rays by dust from the impact.One of the more know examples of the many species is the Dodo. Shortly after the birds discovery around the 1600's the species was extinct. This was a result of descruction of food sources from the destruction of the forest that yielded then. It was also due to the predation from animals brought by the sailors ("Dodo").